What is the reason for overly sad movies like Fault/Stars?

A good cry is extremely cathartic deembatgille, one feels a whole lot better afterwards. It also reminds us that we are human and have feelings with a capital F. Try taking a lady with you when you go and watch sad movies. Girls love sensitive men and the bond you make weeping your way through THE NOTEBOOK or THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is almost sure to get you laid after the picture has ended. But I should also mention that I once got a hand job during the Kurt Russell-starring BREAKDOWN, so clearly thrillers can make girls randy too. Of course, if you are a girl, don't wear too much makeup when you watch sad movies, because you will look like a racoon at the end of the picture.   

What movies have made you cry the most deembatgille? I cried uncontrollably during WAR HORSE - I was saying to myself please God don't let the horse die, because if it does they will have to carry me out of here, MILLION DOLLAR BABY - after the movie ended I didn't leave the cinema for 20 minutes because I was trying to compose myself, and of course the movie that makes grown sob HACHI: A DOG'S STORY was quite the tearful experience. Hell, after HACHI ended I sat in the parking lot for an hour sobbing uncontrollably. Fact is, I was still crying three days after it finished. I waited six months before I had the courage to watch it again. I made it half way through the picture before breaking down and beginning to blubber. The missus was also moved by Hachi's loyalty and unconditional love for his master, but being quite a tough, grounded chick she barely shed a tear. When the movie ended she watched me sob for about five minutes. Then she told me to man up and get over it.

And oh my God. have you ever seen the Swedish tearjerker AS IT IS IN HEAVEN? It's a beautiful film, but good golly miss molly did it make me cry, and cry.

Here, from AS IT IT IS IN HEAVEN, is Gabriella's Song.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=88nflVmxPP4   
          

Well, the reason they are made is that a studio or producer thought that movie could be made by it - and, it seems, they are correct. Sad movies these days, in my opinion, do not earn their tears. Take one already mentioned, "As It Is In Heaven," whose protag dies ever or ever so slowly while he listen to his choir (which metaphorically becomes his heavenly choir) sing syrupy quasi-religious music in a scene that just goes on and on and on and on and on.......... This kind of obvious manipulation has an opposite effect on me. I find these movies unbearable and unwatchable. They make me angry. Nary a tear from me. Modern directors don't know how to let a person die without dragging out the scene to infinity (it feels like) and playing it over soaring violins. The ending to "Big Fish" is another I detest.

As for why people go to see them and allow this kind of cynical and obvious manipulation work on them...well, since you describe your symptoms so vividly, maybe you can tell me. You have clearly gone to see them.

A (mostly) animated documentary from last year, "Tower," is very moving; I came very near tears - and the film earned them by telling its story in a straight-forward way, without all the deliberate and obvious tear-jerking.

Learn to recognize - and hate - cheap movie tricks to pull tears.

I don't think such movies are more prevalent (as a percentage of all films made). Manipulation of the emotions has been rife since the early silents, and as movie-goers have become schooled in tropes over the decades a healthy seasoning of cynicism and black humor is more often added these days, especially in non-US films.

sadness is a natural human emotion. maybe some people think its more "real" but not sure if its entertaining unless you are a masochist.

Hi london777 - There is quite often an element of satire in my posts. But the post you refer to was real. I am a hugely sentimental and ridiculously sensitive person. I also suffer from an excess of empathy. And as I said, a good cry is cathartic. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and my heart often got in the way of my head when I was younger But I don,t really see my condition as a disadvantage. When I was a medic in the army and when I worked in the ICU at a military hospital during my national service I was able to bring great comfort to dying people. It,s better to feel too much than to feel nothing at all.

On the other hand, I am intelligent enough to know when a filmmaker is simply pulling my strings for effect. Perhaps the following reply I gave to a poster in a discussion we were having about Kenneth Lonergan,s MANCHESTER  BY THE SEA explains where my head is at. 

"I disagree with your thoughts mightily here ashverse. For a start, while grief is certainly a theme which runs through the film, forgiveness and redemption are the most dominant themes at play here, and phases of grief such as denial and bargaining don't factor into the equation. 

"I learned that making me cry at the movies is easier than making me laugh or making me feel joy so I'm very careful not to rate the movie high based on it's ability to pull tears from my eyes."

I am an a incredibly sensitive and hugely sentimental person too ashverse. So I cry like a baby when I watch sentimental tearjerkers such as THE FAULT IN OUR STARS or THE NOTEBOOK or A WALK TO REMEMBER. And Don't even let me begin to tell you for how many hours after HACHI: A DOG'S story ended I was still sobbing, or how other tearjerkers such as Clint Eastwood's melancholy manly drama MILLION DOLLAR BABY and the beautiful Swedish film AS IT IS IN HEAVEN left me a wreck.

But I am fully aware when I have been manipulated and sometimes even hate myself in the morning.

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is not a sentimental or manipulative films and it comes by its tears honestly - it doesn't tell the viewer what to feel or how to react.

My Dog Skip got me. I wandered into the end of it on HBO Family the summer after my dog Orson had to be euthanized. Thus, I was vulnerable to animal tearjerkers like it.

Its just a little scene, what difference does it make? Kids wont think it means anything

Except the period films made today, of course.